The last day of the Katy Trail starts bright, sunny and 51 degrees. That is not a misprint. The temperature has dropped twenty degrees overnight. Our fingers are cold.

Fortunately, we have some matching long-sleeve shirts to wear under our brand new Katy Trail jerseys. We are good for the economy.

We have climbed up thousands of feet in the Alps, and today we hit the high point of the Katy.

When you hit 955 feet, it calls for a photo op.

Did we mention the new jerseys? There is a nice tailwind today, and once we hit the high point, we get 15 miles of “downhill”. Before we know it, we zoom into Clinton, the end of the Katy.

The sticker we buy says 237.7 miles. Because we rode to hotels and are extreme overachievers, we wind up with ten more. Either way, it’s the end of the road.

Or is it? We have some time to kill before our bus departs for St. Charles, so we ride into Clinton to check it out.

Evidently, Clinton (population 9000) boasts the largest town square in Missouri and the fourth largest in the country. Now you know.

The old bank was built in 1887. Unfortunately, the donut store is closed at 11AM on a Saturday. We could have done a lot of damage there. So is the ice cream store, which is open “occasionally”. The wonders of small towns.

We do get that ice cream.

Our bus stops at a Dairy Queen on the way back to the start point. We run into some fellow University of Georgia fans who have just watched the Bulldogs beat Missouri in Columbia. Go Dawgs!

And so ends another fabulous adventure, one we really enjoyed. We have not used a lot of pictures of our group. These were really fun people. Let’s finish with some stolen shots from Bubba’s Facebook page. Forty-four of us start in St. Charles.

Forty-one finish in Clinton. Some rode the whole way, some rode parts of it in a SAG van. Everyone was on their own journey and we hope they had as much fun as we did.

All of the finishers are not pictured as some had already headed for home. We had one couple leave because of a bad back and another rider left due to heat-related problems. Besides an abnormally high number of flat tires, there were not any major mechanical breakdowns. Nor were there any serious riding-related injuries.

We should end by thanking Bubba and his fabulous pampering squad. Thanks to Drew, Beaver, Snowflake, Doug the Arrow Man, Jan the SAG Queen and Jeff for making our trip so easy. With them, “it’s all good”. How do they do it?

Start City: Sedalia, MO
End City: Clinton, MO
Miles: 42
Miles to date: 247…done!
Pedaling time: 2 hours, 55 minutes
Average speed: 14.4 MPH
Wind: 5-10 MPH tailwind
Temperatures: 51 at ride start, 65 at finish

Next trip: the Southern Tandem Rally in Venice, Florida in October.